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1.7.5-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 1.7.5 Hindrances The guy operating the mail carriage tried to warn Valjean that his wheel was going to have problems but Valjean kept going. Wasting a little bit of time seeing what the guy wanted would have saved him much time later on. Yes, Valjean was driving “at random” perfectly straight and along the route that he had mapped out for himself. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do but in order to be able to make that decision he’s going to have to be at Arras to do it. I’m starting to think that he is never going to be able to consciously make this decision. It will be an impulse. At the crucial moment he will either speak or he will not. There’s actually no danger in Valjean showing up to his own trial where a different man is in the docket. And who knows? If it doesn’t look like they will convict he doesn’t have to do anything. I think he probably knows deep down how this is going to play out even if he cannot admit it to himself yet if he wants to be able to make this journey. Secretly, he didn’t even want to be doing this. Oh, is that a secret now? And he can’t believe that the world is so peaceful and people are still sleeping and soon to be going about their day while his world is ending. It’s like that thought ‘it should be raining’ when bad things happen. Next we get the profound statement that things look cheering when one is happy and sad when one is upset. After they get to a rest stop, his horse does not have a drop of sweat on his loins. I love how unintentionally hilarious everything is when the word ‘loins’ appear. Translator, you really should have thought about that. I have finally concluded that I’m reading a Hapgood translation which was apparently translated in 1887. That’s not that long after the first American translation or the first British one, both of which came out in 1862, the same year as the French copy. I guess they weren’t very good or something. The 1887 is readable but a bit archaic. Apparently Hapgood is Isabel Florence Hapgood, a woman. I did not know that. She translated several other works including Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris and Toilers of the Sea and published four books about Russia herself. But back to the actual chapter I’m supposed to be looking at. Valjean has retreated to his vague air that shows he’s really not paying attention, kind of like with Petit Gervais except with less crime. Something tells me (perhaps all the ‘my friend’ being bandied about) that Valjean is not as put-out about the delay as he feels he should be. Valjean once again seems to think that what is impossible will be rendered possible with money. In some situations that is true. This is not one of them. Why does the wheelwright all judgmental and needlessly antagonistic with his ‘I wouldn’t let you use my carriage even if I had one. Which I don’t’? Is he just personally/professionally offended that the cart is not being treated properly? Once more, I question whether Valjean really ever properly learned how to drive one of these things. Valjean’s desperation to reach Arras is making the wheelwright suspicious. He thinks Valjean is running from something or the law and not trying – sort of – to prevent a miscarriage of justice. He asks if Valjean has his passport but doesn’t ask to see it even though anyone would say yes. And his pointed little ‘let me repair it like an honest man.’ Sometimes people are just in a hurry, wheelwright, and it doesn’t have to mean anything nefarious! Valjean is just full of ideas but the wheelwright just isn’t having it. He’s not even trying any of them. Some might actually work! Valjean, having done literally everything he could to make it, gives himself permission to be happy he can’t go ruin his life in Arras after all and thinks this is some sort of a divine intervention. But seriously, like he would ever be deterred by expense. He does not understand what that is. If he were not permitted to ruin his life over this then that would be the biggest validation he’d ever have because clearly he would be doing work so good that an innocent life can be sacrificed (or alternatively would be delivered in another way) in order to continue it. Maybe he could finally feel better about himself then. But there is a divine intervention here and not the kind Valjean thinks it is. Some kid is infinitely more helpful than the wheelwright and finds a coach for Valjean to use. And he had just thought it was over so now the fact that it’s not is even harder for him to bear! But he’s polite and dutiful and agrees that he is. ‘Interpolate’ is not a word I had heard before. Valjean tries to stave off what is coming by saying there is no carriage to be had but, well, he can’t. I wonder why the stableman and wheelwright don’t want him to use something else. He’ll still probably pay to have the wheel fixed or something even if he doesn’t have to bother returning the coach and horse since he paid too much for it as a security. Hey, maybe they can keep the carriage and horse. It sounds like the new coach is even shoddier than the old one but it can, perhaps, get him to Arras. Joy. Valjean intended to reclaim the coach on his return? So is he thinking that he WILL return and not denounce himself and be arrested? Or can he just not bear the thought that he will not be back here, never be anywhere but Arras and the journey to the galleys ever again if he is to force himself to go there? Valjean is judging himself for being happy at the thought he couldn’t complete his journey since, after all, he is choosing to do this. That is true but he is choosing to do his duty (possibly, he still hasn’t decided) and it is not a pleasant duty so of course he was happy. Even if he decides, once in Arras, to stay silent it was still a choice and he still condemned someone. If he had to turn back it’s not his fault and he can have his cake and eat it, too. The fact that nothing will happen that he does not cause to happen, far from being something that should make him not wary about Arras, is what makes Arras so terrifying. He knows he won’t walk into the courtroom and have his secret be out. He’s going to have to be self-destructive and throw away everything in order to save the day. The kid was probably compensated by the woman he worked for and though it is natural for him to expect a little finder’s fee for helping out, he doesn’t realize that he really just screwed Valjean over so it’s not surprising Valjean can’t find it within himself to reward the boy for making him face this. On his second stop he “thought of sad and confusing things.” Oh Valjean! He thought he was hungry and tried to eat but couldn’t manage it and thought the bread tasted bitter. And the guy he was near couldn’t understand him. Subtle. He’s feeling very philosophical as he goes on, to travel is to be born and die again every instant. It seems like there are just a crapton of people who saw him on his journey and they all stopped and stared as this was the most interesting thing to happen to them in weeks. And the road is under construction, too! Oh my God! God was really testing him in this, wasn’t he? What else can possibly go wrong for him? And yet he perseveres. This is why I created a way out of this dilemma for him. See, this road-mender can accept that Valjean is in a hurry and must be in Arras tonight without suspecting him of being some sort of a fugitive! Everyone keeps trying to get him to go to Arras tomorrow. If he had left after seeing Fantine like he really should have done, none of this would have been a problem but he is *determined* to get there. Though if he arrived after the trial was over he’d probably be relieved then guilty. It only now occurs to him that maybe the trial will be over by eight o’clock at night. It’s rather unsettling that a trial can be conducted in just one day. In Law & Order trials take weeks and there are always dozens of parts. Commentary Pilferingapples #Valjean #man vs. everything #the determinator THOSE TAGS also thanks for the info on Isabel Hapgood!